When he isn’t flinging feces on Twitter, Trump can often be found gallivanting around the country having “Look at me, I’m so special” pep/campaign rallies, pandering to the sadly large minority of Pink people (white? seriously? do you even have a mirror?) who are terrified of change. There is a lot of talk, and hand-wringing, about “Trump spreading hatred” with his racist, homophobic, ableist, bullshit. He’s not. What he IS doing, is pandering to the fears of the crowd, stoking their xenophobia and their fear of the new and different.
And that is what we truly need to conquer in this country, in this world – it isn’t hate – it is fear. Fear is the source of hate. Fear is the mind killer. It is the soul killer.
And I’m not sure how to reach those fearful folks, but somehow, some way (or ways), we need to help them to have the courage to face those fears and conquer them and to, if not love, then to accept those who will soon be the majority in this country, the different from them. Black folks, Brown folks, Asian folks, Native folks, aggregately will soon outnumber Pink folks in this country. I am one old country boy who is just fine with it; I’m not afraid of it. Possibly (very likely) because I have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are POC, and I am welcomed warmly and with love and acceptance by them and by my/their extended POC family.
Then there are the “others.” Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual. These are my friends and family as well. We as a people, as a culture need to learn to love, or at the very least, accept these others. Because they are here, they are real, living, breathing, loving, laughing, hurting, human beings with whom we all share 99.9 % of our DNA. They are OUT of the closet, kids, and there is no way in hell you are stuffing them back into it. Deal.
And for something completely different from the paradigm of straight Pink mom and dad, and 2.3 perfect little children (and just possibly to add to the discomfiture), there are the intellectually disabled , the mentally ill, the neurodivergent, folks. The vast majority of these kids, with training and support, are VERY functional members of society. They are here, they are out of the closet, and they will NOT be boxed back in, not willingly.
I have a relative who is beautiful, smart, funny, and communicative. And oh, yeah, she is a pre-verbal autistic. And hopefully, with the right guidance, and schooling, and love, and support, she will eventually learn and be able to share what is going on in that magnificent brain of hers. And all these kids, they all need love and acceptance.
The bottom line is that there is no way in hell we are going back to the world where all those “different” folks are shuttered behind locked doors, segregated into “separate but equal” (which NEVER happened, not by a long shot), shoved into institutions to rot, or ANY of the “good old days” solutions. Join the 21st Century and get over it.
All y’all who are pining for the “good old days” need to wake up and realize that the future is HERE AND NOW – and HAS been for 50 years – you just weren’t paying attention. And barring nuclear war, or the Zombie Apocalypse, it is here to stay. Pandora’s box, once opened, can never be closed again, no matter how hard you wish and pray for it.
We as a society need to accept the inevitability (and, I personally think, intrinsic rightness and beauty) of the changes to our world and culture that have created and nourished all this diversity. Homogeneity, like specialization, is for insects. We need, as a culture, as a society to, if not love, at least accept one another. All of one another, liberal, moderate, conservative, straight, LGBTQ, A, neurotypical, neurodivergent, intellectually handicapped – I mean ALL of us – with the possible exception of feces-flinging shitgibbons.
Being one of the weirdos, I accept, and welcome, dialogue with that vast majority of the world that is neuro-typical; as a political moderate, I accept, and welcome, dialogue with the most socially and politically conservative or liberal people out there (except those feces-flinging shitgibbons on EITHER end of the political spectrum); the only way we can learn is by listening to each other. And accepting each other.
NOT tolerate – there is, in my opinion, a certain arrogance to “tolerance” – “I tolerate (fill in the blank)” is code for “I will tolerate your existence, but I do not accept that you are human.”
What ALL of we different others (many of whom are, in my opinion, delightfully so) are saying to society is, to hell with your tolerance. You can take your tolerance and fold it up until it is all sharp corners and then shove it where the Sun don’t shine – I reject your tolerance. You need to ACCEPT that I am a living, breathing, contradiction of what you used to think was the human paradigm.
I am gay, I am bisexual, I am transgender, I am lesbian, I am another ethnicity, I am Autistic, I am NOT YOU. But I am completely, inevitably, authentically, ME.
And I INSIST that you ACCEPT me – as I am, who I am, What I am, as a fellow human being. With ALL the complexity and variety and nuance that humanity entails.
Because honestly? Human society is a machine that only works if the people who are the cogs, and gears, and cams, that make up that machine are regularly lubricated by the oil of courtesy, and kindness, and decency.
It is what we owe to each other; the dues we MUST pay to be in this club called H. Quasi Sapiens.
Peace, brethren, sistren, cousins. I love many of you and accept you all (except those feckin’ feces-flinging shitgibbons)
The Screwtop Letters 